Topic 3 - Materials, techniques and processes in sculpture Flashcards
(33 cards)
What does Sculpture in the round mean?
A fully 3D form surrounded by space (even if placed against a wall).
What does Sculpture in relief mean?
Projecting from a background of which it forms a part.
What does High relief mean?
Projecting substantially from a background.
What does Low relief (bas-relief) mean?
Projecting only slightly from background.
What are examples of Traditional materials?
Marble, other stones (granite, limestone, sandstone, alabaster, agate), wood, bone/ivory, bronze.
What is the Subtractive/
reductive method and what are 3 examples?
- Removal of excess material by carving.
- Stone, marble or wood.
What is the Additive process and what materials are used for this?
- Building up a material through modelling.
- Soft materials like clay or plaster.
What is casting?
A method for working in bronze from preliminary work in wax, clay or plaster.
What does Metallurgy mean?
The understanding of the properties of metal.
What were Ancient Greek sculptures originally?
Painted.
What is the process of Roughing out a Marble Sculpture from a Plaster Model?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i30rPRmEeA
- The design is roughed out on the marble block.
- Calipers are used to measure overall dimensions.
- Setting up the pointing machine on the plaster model.
- The plaster model has metal and graphite marks ~ indicate high and low contours.
- Taking a reading from a point mark.
- Transferring the measurement to the corresponding position on the marble block.
- The process is repeated until the overall form is translated into marble.
- Afterward the details are finished by hand.
What is a Pointing machine?
A measuring tool that is used to guide the finer carving ~ allowed the artist to make a perfect plaster model which could then be duplicated in marble. This process was known as indirect carving.
What does Polychromatic mean?
In a variety of colours.
Why is wood a good material?
- Cheap.
- Readily available.
- Soft.
- Easy to carve ~ excellent for detail.
- Strong in tension in the direction of the fibres.
- Can be sculpted to reveal and work with the grain or – traditionally – coated in gesso and made multi-coloured or polychromed.
How do they carve wood?
Through a subtractive process that involves material being taken away during the artwork’s creation.
What is the process of Direct lost-wax bronze casting?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiofOv18o2M
- Modelling in clay over an armature.
- Lost-wax bronze casting.
- Chasing and polishing.
- Patina and surface appearance.
What are the qualities of the iron?
- Machine-age.
- Industrial.
- Strong in compression.
- Heavy,
What are the surface effects of iron?
- Rusty surface.
- Matt surface.
What are the properties of bronze?
- Malleable.
- Ductile.
- Low melting point.
- Heavy when solid.
- Very durable.
- Allows for a wide range of surface textures, colours and inlaying with other materials.
Why are most bronze works hollow casts and how are they created?
Heavy when solid ~ created from preliminary work in wax, clay or plaster
Bronze is strong in tension so, unlike marble, it allows for:
- Free extensions and protrusions of unsupported parts.
- A large mass to be supported on a small base.
- A more open composition.
Why is clay used as a preliminary material for bronze casting?
- It’s soft, malleable and can be worked with minute details.
- It can also be fired in a kiln to make terracotta (‘cooked earth’) and then glazed.
How were clay masks made?
Made of the cranium and the face, but the ears were modelled in clay individually and attached separately to ensure individuality. Such a sense of intelligent humanity would have been impossible to achieve through carving marble or casting in bronze. The use of pigments for the flesh colour adds to the naturalism.
Materials such as wax, clay, plaster are…
Modelled.
